"When the going gets tough,."

[George Thompson]

I associate this with Pres. Nixon's felonious Attorney General.  A favorite
expression of his, I believe.

I've always enjoyed the amphibology hidden within: when the going gets
tough, the tough get going, in the sense of "Where's my hat, I must be
going."  As in John Barrymore's advice that the best way to fight with a
woman was with one's hat -- grab it and get going.

GAT




On Sat, Apr 13, 2013 at 9:03 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

> When you're right, you're right.
>
> Fred has it in YBQ.
>
> Oddly - and disconcertingly - GB doesn't turn it up till at least ten years
> later.
>
> JL
>
>
> On Fri, Apr 12, 2013 at 7:27 PM, Dave Hause <dwhause at cablemo.net> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Dave Hause <dwhause at CABLEMO.NET>
> > Subject:
> >  =?iso-8859-1?Q?Re:______Re:_=22When_the_going_gets_tough=2C.=22?=
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > I think I had that one from Hunter Thompson, probably one of the "Fear
> and
> > Loathing" books.
> > Dave Hause, dwhause at cablemo.net
> > Waynesville, MO
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Jonathan Lighter" <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > My friend likes to quote Robert Stone: "When the going gets weird, the
> > weird turn pro."
> >
> > JL
> >
> >
> > On Fri, Apr 12, 2013 at 11:44 AM, Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at stanford.edu>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > > -----------------------
> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster:       Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at STANFORD.EDU>
> > > Subject:      =?windows-1252?Q?=22When_the_going_gets_tough=2C=85=22?=
> > >
> > >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > "the tough get going". This proverb figures in a posting on a Zippy
> > > cartoon, here:
> > >
> > >
> >
> http://arnoldzwicky.wordpress.com/2013/04/12/body-language-and-lithuanians/
> > >
> > > in that posting, i quote Wikipedia speculations about the source.  i
> > can't
> > > at the moment locate my copy of the Dictionary of Modern Proverbs, so i
> > > don't know if it's in there.  anyone have the skinny on the proverb?
> > >
> > > arnold
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
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> >
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.

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